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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Essence, Necessity and Explanation' and 'Essence and Potentiality'

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2 ideas

14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / g. Causal explanations
Greek uses the same word for 'cause' and 'explanation' [Koslicki]
     Full Idea: The Greek does not disambiguate between 'cause' and 'explanation', since the same terms ('aitia' and 'aition') can be translated in both ways.
     From: Kathrin Koslicki (Essence, Necessity and Explanation [2012], 13.3.1 n15)
     A reaction: This is essential information if we are to understand Aristotle's Four Causes, which are quite baffling if we take 'causes' in the modern way. The are the Four Modes of Explanation.
14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / k. Explanations by essence
Discovering the Aristotelian essence of thunder will tell us why thunder occurs [Koslicki]
     Full Idea: Both the question 'what is thunder?', and the question 'why does thunder occur?', for Aristotle, are answered simultaneously, once it has been discovered what the essence of thunder it, i.e. what it is to be thunder.
     From: Kathrin Koslicki (Essence, Necessity and Explanation [2012], 13.3.1 n10)
     A reaction: I take this idea to be pretty much the whole story about essences.